Adam Eitel / Character As Authority: Theology as a Lived, Embodied Experience

09/19/22 • 26 min

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For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

"Somewhere is better than anywhere." (Flannery O'Connor, as quoted by Wendell Berry in Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community) Today, Christian ethicist Adam Eitel (Yale Divinity School) sits with Matt Croasmun for a conversation on ethics and theology. Eitel is Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School. Together, he and Matt discuss the demands of teaching and learning theology on personal character—holiness even; the relationship between ethics and theology; the locatedness and situatedness and particularity of Christian ethics; and the rooted, framing question, that animates Adam Eitel's writing and teaching: "What sort of life does the Gospel enjoin?"

About Adam Eitel

Adam Eitel is Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School.

Show Notes

Teaching theology as a vocation
"Authority is linked to character"
Instruction in holiness
The millennial demand for personal character to matter in academic authority
Formation
"I see my work as a professor of Christian ethics as a theological vocation."
Millennial entitlement, juxtaposed with vulnerability
Theology as a lived, embodied enterprise
The lines between the personal and the pedagogical
Problems for Christian ethics
It's hard for Christian ethics to stay theological
Can Christian ethics appropriately express social criticism?
"The temptation for Christian ethics to bracket the theological commitments, that fund a specifically Christian moral imaginary."
Dichotomy between tradition and critique
"So we end up sawing off the branch that we're sitting on..."
Declaration of Independence's "All men are created equal." as both the impetus for reform and the object of reform.
"When we're doing theology, when we're doing ethics, we are always looking backwards in some respect, concatenating texts, bringing their different manners of speaking together and to, in order to see what can now be said on the basis of what's been said, that doesn't require an uncritical attitude toward the text or the social arrangements they endorse."
Locatedness and situatedness and particularity of Christian ethics
"What sort of life does the Gospel enjoin?"

Production Notes

This podcast featured Adam Eitel and Matt Croasmun
Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
Hosted by Evan Rosa
A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

About Adam Eitel

Adam Eitel is Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School.

Show Notes

Teaching theology as a vocation
"Authority is linked to character"
Instruction in holiness
The millennial demand for personal character to matter in academic authority
Formation
"I see my work as a professor of Christian ethics as a theological vocation."
Millennial entitlement, juxtaposed with vulnerability
Theology as a lived, embodied enterprise
The lines between the personal and the pedagogical
Problems for Christian ethics
It's hard for Christian ethics to stay theological
Can Christian ethics appropriately express social criticism?
"The temptation for Christian ethics to bracket the theological commitments, that fund a specifically Christian moral imaginary."
Dichotomy between tradition and critique
"So we end up sawing off the branch that we're sitting on..."
Declaration of Independence's "All men are created equal." as both the impetus for reform and the object of reform.
"When we're doing theology, when we're doing ethics, we are always looking backwards in some respect, concatenating texts, bringing their different manners of speaking together and to, in order to see what can now be said on the basis of what's been said, that doesn't require an uncritical attitude toward the text or the social arrangements they endorse."
Locatedness and situatedness and particularity of Christian ethics
"What sort of life does the Gospel enjoin?"

Production Notes

This podcast featured Adam Eitel and Matt Croasmun
Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
Hosted by Evan Rosa
A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Previous Episode

Graham Tomlin / Words About God: Theology as Worship, Reform, and Witness

"If you don't really understand religion, if you don't understand faith, if you don't understand theology, you can't really understand the modern world."

"Words make worlds," says one of my podcasting heroes, Krista Tippett. Ask any poet, priest, or politician, and they'll agree. Language does have that power, for better or for worse.

But whatever power our words have to make a world that we can then ourselves inhabit—that power is drawn from the archetypal Word—the Word made flesh, by whom all things are made and in whom all things are held together, and for whom all tongues confess.

So this simple definition offered by Bishop Graham Tomlin, that theology is just "words about God" is actually quite expansive. When our words about God are directed first toward God, but then toward the church and the world, theology lives up to its purpose of worship, reform, and witness. Graham Tomlin is President of St. Mellitus College and author of many books of theology and Christian spirituality. He recently completed his tenure as Bishop of Kensington and now leads the Church of England's Center for Cultural Witness. He joins Matt Croasmun today for a conversation about the meaning and potential of theology. Thanks for listening.

About Graham Tomlin

The Rt Revd Dr Graham Tomlin is President of St Mellitus College and Bishop of Kensington. He served a curacy in the diocese of Exeter, and among past roles he has served as Chaplain of Jesus College, Oxford and Vice Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where he taught within the Theology Faculty of Oxford University on Historical Theology, specializing in the Reformation period. He was closely involved in the foundation, and was appointed the first Dean, of St Mellitus College, a position he held for the first eight years of the College’s life, before being made Bishop of Kensington in 2015. He has spoken and lectured across the world, and in 2016 was awarded the Silver Rose of St Nicholas, a global award recognizing a significant contribution to theological education and learning. He was very involved in the response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. He is married to Janet and has two married children and three grandchildren. He is a keen follower of various kinds of music and sport, suffering a lifelong addiction to Bristol City Football Club.

Show Notes

The Rt Revd Dr Graham Tomlin is President of St Mellitus College and Bishop of Kensington.
What's going well with theology
Theology connecting in the church; the church as context for theology
Spiritual theology deepening and nurturing human life
Ellen Charry and thinking about eudaimonia in theological context
Challenges to theology
Fragmentation
Three audiences for theology: God, Church, and World
Audience 1: God. Theology as prayer and worship
Audience 2: Church. Theology as reform and referendum, enabling the church to be the church
Audience 3: World. Theology as witness, declaring what life looks like, seen through the lens of the gospel.
Theology for the World: Pluralism and Secularity
"If you don't really understand religion, if you don't understand faith, if you don't understand theology, you can't really understand the modern world."
Religious studies and objectivity vs subjectivity in studying religion
Lived experience and inhabiting faith to understand it.
Theology's connection to every other academic endeavor
Theos, Logos: Words about God
God as the source of our being and the one to which we return.
Three aspects of Theology: Worship, Reform, and Witness
The God who reveals himself to us
Thinking holistically about the world
Engaging heart and mind
About St. Mellitus
Theology in the church doesn't mean dumbing it down or removing academic seriousness.
Theologians with a passion for the church and see the connection between theology and Christian life.
Churches don't always see the need for theology; they stay pragmatic.

Production Notes

This podcast featured Graham Tomlin
Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
Hosted by Evan Rosa
A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Next Episode

Kelly Corrigan & Miroslav Volf / Experts at Means, Amateurs at Ends: Talking About Success & Flourishing at College

“We’ve become experts at means but amateurs at ends.” Miroslav Volf and Kelly Corrigan discuss the role of education in seeking a flourishing life; the risks and rewards endemic to asking questions of meaning and existential import in the higher educational context; the meaning of success to college students, and how the specter of success drives our cultural narrative; what it takes to live a life based on one's deepest -held values; Miroslav shares his own personal experience of approaching what makes life worth living within a particular Christian vision; what made him decide to be the only openly Christian kid in his high school; and how suffering grief, forgiveness, and living faith informed his early childhood and shaped his family's life.

Show Notes

Listen to Kelly Corrigan Wonders on Apple Podcasts

About Kelly Corrigan

Kelly Corrigan has written four New York Times bestselling memoirs in the last decade, earning her the title of “The Poet Laureate of the ordinary” from the Huffington Post and the “voice of a generation” from O Magazine. She is curious and funny and eager to go well past the superficial in every conversation. More on KellyCorrigan.com.

Production Notes

This podcast featured Kelly Corrigan and Miroslav Volf
Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
Hosted by Evan Rosa
Special thanks to Kelly Corrigan and Tammy Stedman
A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give